


Magnetism

by phoenix_risen



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Apocalypse, Audiokinesis, Be More Quarantine Challenge, Gen, Human Jeremy Heere's Squip, Magic AU, no real ships in this, technopath jeremy heere, tw skin burns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:13:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23753641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenix_risen/pseuds/phoenix_risen
Summary: E. K. Squip's super computers are supposed to increase the powers of people everywhere. Jeremy Heere almost took one.Thank god he didn't, since apparently they're making people into mind-controlled zombies.
Relationships: Christine Canigula & Jeremy Heere, Jeremy Heere & Michael Mell
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	Magnetism

**Author's Note:**

> used all main prompts this week, 13 previous prompts, mentioned jeremy being jewish, and 5 special prompts.
> 
> total wc is 6730

Jeremy had to be honest; if it weren’t for Michael, he would be completely fucked right now. He wasn never the best at making decisions, and paired with his sheer desperation and the fact he was incredibly naive and trusting at the best of times, he was sure that if he hadn’t run his plan past Michael first, he would be in a metric fuck ton of trouble. Michael had the foresight to actually consider the sketchiness of the whole situation, and tell Jeremy to rethink his ideas.

He almost did it anyway, before everything fell apart.

Michael probably only saw it clearly because he didn’t suffer from the same… issue as Jeremy. His powers were strong. He did well in magic related classes. Being able to successfully use audiokinesis was already rare, let alone to the extent that Michael could. It made him popular with teachers, and Jeremy knew that if Michael didn’t actively despise the idea of being popular, he could rule the school with people like Chloe Valentine, a  _ healer _ , and Jake Dillenger, who could use his ergokinesis to dominate in sports. If he was like Jeremy, seventeen and fundamentally powerless beyond occasionally making computers freak out, he’d understand why. He’d be tempted, too, by the promises proposed by established technopath E. K. Squip. It probably didn’t help that Michael was aggressively against one- percenters, and E. K. Squip was a tech magnate. The man had filled just about every industry with automation, citing that CEOs would be able to pay people more if they just had the money. Claims of being able to pay even his lowest level employees one hundred  _ thousand _ a year made people love him. Then he came up with a supercomputer pill that could make even the least powerful person be able to utilise their magic.

It was an attractive offer, to say the least.

But he didn’t do it, because Michael said it was too good to be true. Well, that wasn’t true. He still had one, sitting at home under some homework in the lowest drawer of his desk. But he didn’t take it, because he was still waffling about his four hundred dollar purchase. He felt stupid, really stupid, because if he took it he was going against Michael’s advice, but if he didn’t, he just wasted all of his Bar Mitzvah money. It would be a complete sunk cost, a total loss. He decided to think it over while he went out with Michael to the forest to chill and smoke. They did that a lot, going out to the woods and smoking weed, covering it up by having a bonfire. It was a ritual of sorts, ever since Michael got his shitty P.T. Cruiser. The thing was covered with stickers and had a tendency to randomly overheat in the summer, but for a couple of seventeen year olds in a small town, it did what it needed to. Jeremy found the drive down the pine tree lined road, Michael’s weird music choices blasting and the windows down, cleared his mind and helped him think. It calmed the buzzing that often hissed in his ears at home and at school. Michael liked to use his power to do impromptu remixes of whatever he had in the C.D. player, making the people singing say weird, random shit. The calm of it all really helped him. When they finally got there, they would park the car at a local campsite, and walk out into the forest until they got to Jeremy’s dad’s campsite. His dad knew they hung out there, but Jeremy assumed that if he knew that he was smoking weed out on his property he wouldn’t be exactly pleased. The trail was marked by broken trees and a well worn and well walked path.

That’s where he and Michael were when the apocalypse began.

The two of them didn’t know about it until they left around two in the morning, when Jeremy’s phone finally reconnected, being out of the dead zone that was the campsite. He had about thirty messages, pushdowns, missed calls, some from his dad and even his mom, some from the government declaring it a National Emergency. Apparently Michael was right not to trust E. K. Squip. His supercomputer pills apparently started causing the people that had taken them to get headaches. That turned into excruciating pain in their entire bodies, then aggressive vomiting. The vomit, according to reports, was bright teal and  _ glowed _ . From there they became incredibly violent towards anyone that came near them. Those they attacked, if they got any of the teal fluid into their mouths or noses, went through the same steps. The.... infected… were impossible to reason with and their magic went completely haywire. Rich Goranski, a kid from their class, set fire to three houses before he could be subdued at all. By that point his entire body was covered in burns and anyone who tried to treat him would end up burned as well. That was the issue with magical people. There were ways to subdue and restrain people physically, but no way to stop their magic without completely knocking them out. Tranquilizers didn’t work on the infected, though. There was no way to stop them, and all E. K. Squip had to say about it was that he didn’t know why they thought anything else would have happened. His statement was, fundamentally, what did you expected would happen, implanting tech into your brains given to you by someone whose power was completely based on his ability to  _ control technology _ .

Jeremy was so thankful, in that moment, that Michael was not the “I told you so” type. Though, he would have definitely preferred it if the two of them were not stoned when confronted with this information, as Mijchael’s first idea was to google how to kill zombies. Yeah, like that was going to happen. These weren’t flesh eating monsters, these were people being controlled by a corporate asshole who put his thirst for power above the lives of many. So really just like any corporate asshole, only this one had mind control. 

The two of them decided that it was probably better if they didn’t go back into town, at least not yet. They couldn’t deal with it, yet. They needed a game plan. Jeremy did take this time to call his dad, who had sent him a slew of messages and called him innumerable times to make sure he was okay. Michael did the same with his moms. Everyone was in a panic. All his father could think to tell him to do was to hide. He had been at work when it all happened, in the city an hour over, so he was taken by the police and fire department to a safe area. That being said, he wasn’t allowed to leave. Michael’s mothers had a similar problem, both working in a hospital. It was all hands on deck, so they were stuck there until further notice. Eventually Jeremy and Michael decided that the best course of action would be to go home, as other than Rich there were no recorded cases in Middlesbrough. If worse came to worst they could grab some supplies from their houses and get the hell out of dodge. If that happened, Michael’s mothers gave them permission to hide out in their summer cottage on the coast of Delaware. Hopefully they could get over state lines and hide out there. It was off the beaten path enough that they could hide there without a lot of issues. Once everything was over, they could drive back up into New Jersey and come home. Jeremy always told himself he could handle an Apocalypse, but this was totally different, oh lord.

Everyone else must have had the same idea, because when they drove back to Middlesbourogh, it was a complete ghost town. Everything was empty, the driveways, the streets… It was early enough in the morning that while the sky was dark, people should have been awake. 

Not a single light was on in the entire neighborhood.

The only little lights on the streets were the street cleaning robots, chugging along and doing their jobs even as everything else stopped. It made Jeremy’s skin crawl. If they saw them driving, would they be able to report that to Squip? Would it send the mind controlled zombie army after them? There was no way to know. 

They stopped at Michael’s house first, grabbing his extra gas can from the garage and stuffing his backpack and whatever other bags they could find with food, medicine, and extra clothes. Anything they dubbed important, they shoved in the trunk. There was a moment where Michael looked longingly at his collections, and Jeremy felt his heart ache. He knew how important Michael’s games, his sodas, his pins and patches were to him. Jeremy felt awful that he felt relieved when Michael turned away from his things and said they should go. He could never tell Michael to leave those things behind, never, and he was glad that Michael was able to tell himself that. It was a terrible thing to be relieved about. At the very least, he set a comforting hand on Mihchael’s back and looked at him with as much empathy and care as he could muster. Michael gave him a weak smile back and seemed to appreciate the gesture. The last thing they grabbed from the house was a photobooth reel of Michael and his moms, which Michael put into the glove compartment. It was a good idea, Jeremy thought, to take something sentimental. When they arrived at Jeremy’s house, he made sure to do the same. He took his favorite picture of him and his dad, from a little after his dad started going to therapy post-divorce. It was the first time they were able to spend time together without any sadness or resentment after his mom left, and Jeremy had to fight tears as he slipped it into his pocket. Somehow, even as he had only known about what was happening for less than five hours, it felt like the world was completely ending. 

From there they did the same thing they had done at Michael’s house; Food, clothes, supplies, anything they felt they needed. Jeremy found himself looking at his desk, knowing what was in the bottom drawer, as Michael looked for another bag to shove stuff in in his closet. Jeremy walked towards the desk, as if transfixed. He wanted it, still. It was like it was calling to him from within the drawer. He could have power, he could have power, he could-

“MOUNTAIN JEW?!” Michael’s voice from the closet broke his trance and he turned to see Michael come out of his closet grinning, holding up an ugly green shirt. “Mountain jew….”

“My cousin got me that. Jared.” Jeremy wrinkled his nose. “I’ve never worn it.”

“We gotta bring it, dude. Please. Mountain jew.” Michael held it to his chest dramatically. 

“No fucking way.” Jeremy opened his bottom drawer and scooped up his old papers, some CDs, and the Squip. Just in case, no harm. No harm.

“Whatcha getting there?” Michael tilted his head to the side, setting the “Mountain Jew” shirt on to Jeremy's bed. 

“Oh, just a couple CDs. In case I get sick of your music choices.” Jeremy lied, smiling. Michael rolled his eyes, buying it. 

“Yeah right, my music is the best. Plus, I can always make it sound however I want it to. You play whatever, I’ll just turn it into My Trains. My basement, uh, Gonna show you my beautiful basement! Where the concrete floor feels cool to the touch, I'll turn up the heat if it's too much-” Michael started singing.

“Stoooo-” Jeremy whined, but Michael held up his hand and Jeremy’s voice just stopped in his throat. Michael, since he wasn’t a complete prick, only did that when the situation was lighthearted. There was only once in a fight that Michael cut out Jeremy’s voice, and to be fair Jeremy wished he’d shut up, too. Thankfully that was back when they were thirteen and had long since forgiven each other for it. He spoke, even muted, knowing Michael was good at reading lips. He had to be, since he liked to make himself a bubble of silence at school. Michael always had a tendency to be overwhelmed by a lot of people talking, or if there was a lot of noise when he didn’t want there to be. Jeremy wondered how he would feel if he had to deal with Jeremy’s… well, he assumed it was some form of tinnitus. “Michael, stop singing, we gotta go!”

“I laid a track on his ass with a styrofoam bat, but the president never did let me back after that! Shit, I said, "Fuck you, Who the fuck needs a punk ass choo-choo crew anywho?"!” Michael was doing a stupid little dance, ignoring him, until a loud bang from downstairs stopped them both. 

“What was that?” Jeremy whispered, Michael’s shock making him drop his mute on his friend.

“I don’t know, oh jesus christ.” Michael made a face, then walked towards the bedroom door. “We can check? Get ready to slam something or… I dunno, scream, and I’ll send them flying with the sound if I need to.”

Jeremy nodded. He grabbed Michael’s arm, tense and feeling uncomfortable. The two slowly made their way down stairs, where the banging continued. It was coming from the front door, and Jeremy’s grip on Michael tightened. Michael looked back at him, and his expression changed from trepidation to determination.

“Get ready, Jeremy.” Michael put his hand on the doorknob, his other poised to whip out and direct sound as needed. “Three,” Jeremy inhaled slowly, getting ready to shout. “Two,” He crouched a little so he wouldn’t scream in Michael’s ear. “One!”

Michael threw open the door, and what was there knocked the wind out of Jeremy.

Christine Canigula and Chloe Valentine, holding an unconscious and limp Brooke Lohst. They looked desperate. Before he could process the fact that they were, well, who they were, Jeremy just… punched. He felt his hand connect with something, and he looked up to see that he had punched Chloe fucking Valentine in the face.

“OW! Why’d you *punch me in the face*???” She screeched, just barely keeping her grip on Brooke.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time!” Jeremy’s voice came out in a horrified falsetto. “Sorry, sorry!”

“Jesus, Jeremy!” Michael pushed him behind himself. “God, okay, what are you doing here?”

“Please help.” Chloe hissed through gritted teeth. “This was the only place with a car in the driveway.”

“Jeremy-” Christine began, before the three of them were grabbed by Michael and pulled into the house. 

“What’s wrong with her?” Michael took Brooke, holding her princess style with little effort. Jeremy sometimes forgot how strong Michael was. He was bigger than Jeremy in all senses of the word, but he spent so much time with him that it didn’t really register. 

“Can’t you heal her?” Jeremy asked Chloe, who immediately went on the defensive.

“That’s none of your business!” She bristled, turning away. “You-”

“She passed out after protecting us. It’s a new moon, so her magic isn’t very strong and she had to work really hard to produce water out of nowhere. Rich escaped and is reeking havoc on the town. The police were supposed to be keeping him in but they all just left for… I don’t know where.” Christine filled them in, shaking with nervous energy. She covered her face with her hand, obviously still shaken from the encounter. Even in this situation, Jeremy couldn’t help but feel his heart pound at the sight of his longtime crush. She was in a huge black sweatshirt with a little alien decal, her hair done up in buns. She was wearing black and green pajama shorts, probably having either just woken up or having been interrupted getting ready for bed. Either way, she looked adorable and Jeremy felt himself blush. He’d never spoken to her at length, and now here she was, in his house.

Michael wasn’t so tongue tied. He was always much better in a crisis. “She’s a water witch or something, right? That’s a good match up for us, then, with Rich on the loose. Well… If she wakes up soon, that is. Jeremy, can we put her in your room?”

“N-no!” Jeremy shrieked, mortified. All three stared at him, and he cleared his throat. “No, um, My bed is covered in stuff since we were packing, remember? Put her in my dad’s room. It’ll be more comfortable and we won't have to clear anything off.”   
“Oh! Good plan, dude.” Michael adjusted his grip and headed up the stairs. Christine trailed after him, asking questions at rapid fire. Jeremy watched them go, then turned to Chloe. Chloe was chewing her thumbnail, looking at the floor.

“Uh-” Jeremy attempted. She turned her gaze towards him, and Jeremy noticed for the first time that her eyeliner was smudged down her cheeks and under her eyes. Her eyes were glassy, and Jeremy recognized the look of someone trying not to cry. He was familiar enough with the look on his own face, but not so much on someone as untouchable as Chloe. “Are you okay….?”

“I’m fine!” Chloe snapped, turning away quickly. “I just- I don’t know what’s wrong with me right now. I should be able to fix this, no problem. It’s literally just overexertion. I go to all of Jake’s games to give them boosts all the god damned time. Why…” She held her hand up, and it glowed light green. Jeremy had seen her do that a million times. “Why the fuck is it working now?! I needed it fucking  _ earlier!” _ She stormed up the stairs, leaving Jeremy to watch her go. He was confused to say the least, but didn’t want to push anything and risk getting snapped at again. 

\---

After Chloe seemed to get her magic back in order, Brooke was up and around in what seemed like no time at all. She confirmed Christine’s story. Rich was burning everything in sight, and when Chloe and Brooke, who were having a sleepover at Brooke’s house, went out to take a look, they saw Christine trying her best to put out what she could. That’s when Rich came blasting through the air, using his fire to propel himself. He was screaming nonsense, and Brooke knew she had to step up, despite knowing how badly the moon phase was for her magic. She sent him flying as far as she could, put everything else out, and then she passed out. It was just a lot to do for one half-powered person. The entire time she was speaking, Chrtistine was holding her hand, looking concerned. The selfish awful part of Jeremy was jealous, but the part of him that was rational knew Rich would have killed him in the same situation.

Jeremy, still feeling awkward about it all, devoted himself to getting everyone drinks and trying to make them comfortable. Christine had changed out of her pajama shorts into a pair of michael’s sweats from the car. Once again, that stupid selfish thing called his crush reared it’s ugly head, but it wasn’t like he didn’t offer his own; He was just too skinny for her to fit into anything he had to offer. God damn it. He was at least able to help out somewhat, when Brooke didn’t have any shoes. She was, thankfully, the same shoe size as his mom and she had a couple pairs that had just been left. He gave her the white sneakers, and she at first just put them on her mostly-bare feet. She had been wearing fishnet stockings, for some reason, and Jeremy cringed at the idea of bare feet in a sneaker. She accepted his socks with a blush and a grateful nod. Thank god he could feel a  _ little _ helpful.

After a bit of guest entertaining, Jeremy was pulled into the half bathroom by Michael. Michael sat him on the toilet and leaned against the wall. Up until that point, Michael had looked welcoming, but now he just looked agitated.

“Jeremy, I don’t… I don’t think it’s a good idea for them to stay here. Or travel with us. I don’t know, it was supposed to be just the two of us and I don’t know how my moms would feel about a bunch of girls being with us at the cottage-”

Jeremy furrowed his brows. “You’re gay, Michael? Like, I don’t think that’s gonna be an issue.”

“No, not with me, but, like, you’re straight.”

“Bi.”

“Like girls.”

“And?”

“Like Christine.”

“ _ And _ ?” Jeremy huffed. “That’s all the more reason to help them out? Plus, a healer, a water witch, and a tempestarii? Even if I didn’t like Christine like that, I’m kind of useless to you.”

“You are not.” Michael hissed. “You are not useless, Jeremy.”

“Compared to the rest of you? Yeah, I am.”

“I knew you’d do this.” Michael rubbed his face, pushing his glasses up so he could cover his eyes. “I  _ knew _ you’d pull that card. Jeremy, I’m just not comfortable with them in the car, okay? I know I’m being a dick, but I don’t think I can handle everyone in there at once. I just can’t.”

Jeremy’s demeanor shifted, his face softening. “Hey, why didn’t you say that, then?” If you’re uncomfortable, you’re uncomfortable. We don’t have to mention the cottage to them. We can just say we’re going out of town. Hell, I can drive if they need to go somewhere close, and you can sound bubble yourself until they’re gone, okay?” 

Michael sighed, letting his hands drop to his sides. “I’m being an asshole, aren’t I? I always told myself in the Apocalypse, I’d be selfless and help everyone but now… I can’t forget how Chloe and Brooke treated us. And I can’t bring myself to just  _ let _ Christine come with us when I’m actively not letting the other two come with. I don’t know.”

“I get it, don’t worry.” Jeremy grabbed Michael’s hands, squeezing them. He felt kind of gross for leaving them, but if he could drop them off somewhere safe, it would be fine. They didn’t have to come to Delaware. “We don’t have to. It’s okay, Micah.”

Michael looked at the ground, squeezing Jeremy’s hands back. “Actually, Jeremy, I-”

**BOOM!**

The entire house shook, and Michael grabbed Jeremy and held him close to his chest. As he was brought into Mihcael;s chest, the sound suddenly became quiet, like he had entered a muted pocket. It was sort of a relief, until he realized he wouldn’t be able to hear what was going on around them. He pushed away from Michael just in time to hear a voice come from outside.

“OH, THAT’S THE QUEER’S CAR! STUPID ASS STICKERS MAKE IT OOOOOBVIOUS-! IS YOUR BOYFRIEND HERE TOO? TAAAAAALLAAAAASS! YOU’RE POWERLESS, DON’T YOU WANNA BE LIKE ME?” Rich Goranski’s voice was echoing and crackling through the air. Jeremy peeked out the bathroom window just in time to see him send a fireball at Michael’s car. 

“No-!” Jeremy yelped. “Michael, the Cruiser!”

Michael started running immediately, but Jeremy was frozen, watching. Brooke and Christine were already outside, Christine using wind in an attempt to put it out, and Brooke throwing whatever water she could manage and a cackling Rich. Being this close to Rich was making Jeremy’s head buzz terribly, and he couldn’t place why. His head was always buzzing, constant noise in his ears unless he was out in the middle of nowhere. His magic only managed to fuck up computers and be inconvienient, so-

Wait.

Fuck up computers.

He could  _ help _ . 

Jeremy made his own dash downstairs, Michael way ahead of him. As he ran, he saw a practically catattonic Chloe just sitting on his dad’s bed, unmoving and visibly scared. He understood that perfectly, but he had a plan now. He hoped this would work, Jesus christ, because if not he was royally fucked over.

Brooke’s powers were already waning. For all of Chloe’s healing, there was only so much she could do about the actual upper threshold of Brooke's power. Michael had grabbed the hose and was using the sound of the water to carry the water up and towards Rich, like a backwards water slide. His car was out, but the damage was done. Thankfully they put it out before the fuel ignited, but it probably wouldn’t work very well driving anywhere.

“Michael!” Jeremy yelled. Unfortunately, that not only got his friend’s attention; Rich turned towards him, as well.

“IF IT ISN’T TALLASS HIMSELF! LOOKS LIKE YOU DIDN’T GET A SQUIIIP! SHOULD HAVE! LOOK AT ME! I’M NOT A LOSER LIKE YOOOOU ANYMORE!” Rich’s skin was burning. That was the first thing Jeremy noticed now that he was close. It looked like it was melting off of him. Fucking hell. “LOSER! LOSER! YOU’RE  _ PITIFUL _ !” Rich’s flames went from the typical orange to a bright blue and white. Oh no, oh fuck, he had to act fast.

“Michael, whip me with the sound.” Jeremy begged. “Throw me at him.”

“No fucking way, dude. No way. Why the fuck-” Michael tried to argue, but then Jeremy was flying throught the air. Christine hadn’t waited for the argument, hadn’t asked what the hell Jeremy was thinking, just did what he asked. Jeremy appreciated it, but it was also terrifying. He was hurtling through the air at a pissed as hell dude who was probably at least several hundred degrees to the touch. At the last second, though, he steeled himself and grabbed Rich by the head. It hurt like a motherfucker, his hands burning and his mind screaming for him to pull them away. Or that might have been Rich screaming at him to get off of him, he wasn’t sure. The pain and the determination to do something made everything muddled. He just took a deep breath and listened hard. He could hear it, quiet, pulsing in Rich’s skull. Just like how it did in Jeremy’s desk. He concentrated on it, and it was almost like he could hear its voice. This one was not begging to be taken, no, this one was telling Rich he could be liked, be wanted, be safe, be loved, if he just assimilated everyone into the hive mind. That was scary as hell, but Jeremy just took a deep breath and tried to feel what he had every time he accidently fried one of his electronics. Buzzing in his fingers, and then-

The loudest sound he’d ever heard, a flash of light from his hands and Rich’s head, and then Rich  _ screaming _ . Oh god, what had he done?

And then they started to fall, but Jeremy never felt himself hit the ground. Things just went black.

\--

They were by the sea, the waves lapping up on the beach in such a beautiful way. Jeremy couldn’t remember them ever being that beautiful. 

He was sitting on the rocks, watching it all. There were birds, a flock, he supposed, flying over the water. He wished for a moment that he could fly like that, fly over the water and have that be his only concern. He felt his hands be squeezed on either side. He turned one way, and saw Christine, looking beautiful and cute as always. She was sipping a juice box and wearing the cutest oversized white shirt and glasses. He turned the other and there was Michael, grinning at him. He was in his old ratty pokeball shirt with his hoodie tied around his waist loosely. The ocean breeze was blowing through his hair, and Jeremy felt his heartbeat pick up. Holding the hands of his favorite person and his crush, sitting on a beach? This was perfect. He couldn’t believe it.

Christine and Michael stood up, walking forward and pulling Jeremy with them. They stepped into the water, which was crystal clear in a way Jeremy couldn’t even imagine. All three of them walked from rock to rock, Christine eventually splashing some water their way. It was picturesque, the water fight that proceeded to happen. He was so happy, so happy, and then-

The water was red.

Micahel and Christine were gone, the sun replaced by an eclipsed moon in the sky. In front of him was a bloody, wheezing Rich. He couldn’t move, just watched Rich struggle to breath and blood poured out of his ears and eyes. His skin was burned to a crisp, and he was obviously suffering. Jeremy had to fight the need to vomit, and he looked down at his own burned hands. There was blood on them from where he had to rip his melted flesh off of Rich’s face. 

“I’m sorry.” Jeremy tried to get out, but his voice was raspy and forced. “I’m so sorry!”

But Rich just stared at him, suffering.

Stared, and stared, and stared, and  _ stared and stared and _ -

\--

Jeremy woke up with a start. His hands hurt, but it was more of a dull ache. He turned to see that his head was in Michael’s lap. Mihcael seemed like he had been crying, his face puffy and red. “Micah..?”

“Oh my god, you idiot!! I hate you so much!” Michael grabbed him and hugged him tight.

“Be careful with him, dumbass! I haven’t had a chance to actually heal him properly yet.” Chloe snapped. She had her hands on Rich, who looked… bad. He wasn’t as bad as in Jeremy’s dream, but he didn’t look good in the least. His skin was angry red and blistering in most places, and his hair was singed. To be fair, so was Brooke’s. Christine was working on cutting off the worst of it, leaving Brooke with a just under shoulder length bob. It was cute, in Jeremy’s opinion.

He didn’t even realize he’d said it out loud until Brooke blushed. “Uh. Thanks, Jerry.”

“Jeremy.” Christine corrected.

“Jeremy.” Brooke repeated, smiling a little.

“Yeah, yeah. Anyways, before the shock wears off, you’re gonna wanna get some cold water on his hands. I’ll heal him when Rich isn’t two inches from dying.” Chloe said with a sneer. She seemed to say most things that way.

“I can do that. Come here.” Brooke held her hands open to him, summoning bubbles of water to cover them. Jeremy went to go, but Michael wouldn’t let him out of his grip. Instead, Michael more or less carried him to Brooke and continued to hold him as she cooled his hands down. It felt good, and Jeremy sighed happily. Everyone sat in silence for a while, the only sound was the soft whir of Chloe’s magic.

Christine was the one to break the silence. “I always thought you didn’t have any magic, Jeremy. You’re a technopath?”

“Uh. I dunno. I guess that would make sort of sense? I can’t control machines, though. Just fuck them up.” He shrugged.

“I think it’s magnetism.” Michael added. “His mom can control metal, and his dad can use telekinesis, so together it’s magnets. That’s why he fucks computers up.”

“That would explain the constant buzzing in my head around electronics and shit, then.”

“Man, if you can learn to like… change the magnetic field around your head, you might be able to get rid of your electro tinnitus.” Michael grinned, petting Jeremy’s hair.

“Yeah, maybe.” Jeremy chuckled. “It would be nice.”

“...I knew you guyth were a thing.” A weak voice interrupted their conversation. Rich was awake. “Good for you. Lucky. Michael’th cute.” 

Michael flushed. “Excuse me? You don’t get to say that. You called me “queer” instead of my name and set fire to my car. Hell no.”

“....Thorry.” Rich cringed. “Tho, how bad ith it? Ignore the lithp, I jutht thound like that. Not thith bad, but whatever.”

“You look like you got in a fight with an industrial fryer, my guy.” Christine said, not sugar coating it at all. Rich nodded slightly.

“Maketh thenthe. I don’t know what happened. I jutht wanted to be able to do more than jutht light a candle with my magic, and then… well, thingth went off the railth. Didn’t know you could fuck up tech, though, tallath. Good for you.”

“I didn’t know I could make the  _ choice _ to. I think that will be good considering now I know I can basically get rid of people’s Squips.”

“That’s true!” Brooke interjected. “You could totally do that to  _ anyone _ who’s… infected?”

“Pitiful Children.” Rich added. “That’th what he callth the people he’th controlling.”

“Pitiful Children?” Jeremy asked. “That’s weird.”

“Yeah, well, he theeth it ath he’th helping the people who aren’t magically gifted. Like what he’th doing ith a good thing. Then he realithed he could jutht control everyone, and make it okay if you didn’t have magic at all. I don’t know why he chothe that hill to die on, but it ith what it ith.” Rich shrugged. “Chlo, am I gonna be completely out of comithion forever, or…?”

“I should have you functioning in about an hour. Why?”

“He’th gonna be thending people hear, now that he knowth there’th thomeone who can dethtroy the thquipth.”

“Oh god.” Jeremy shook, scared out of his mind. He just wanted to help, and now he was a target for the guy who started the  _ Apocalypse. _

W o n d e r f u l.

“Yeah. I can help ath much ath I can, but I don’t know the thate of my magic right now.” Rich offered, smiling painfully. “Will thith thcar, Chloe?”

“Yes.” She said shortly. “Stop asking me questions, I need to concentrate.”

“Thorry.”

“We should get going soon, then. Take what’s salvageable out of the car and all put on backpacks full of supplies. We can go hide in the gated community’s playground for a bit. It’s a walk, but it should be pretty hard for any… what did you call them, Pitiful Children?... To find us. Chloe’s house is there, too. We can grab more supplies there.”

“We can walk to the mall, too. That’s in the direction of where… where Jeremy and I were gonna go. We can always try and walk there, Jere.” Jeremy’s eyes widened, surprised that Michael was bringing it up after their previous conversation.

“Where are you guys going?” Brooke asked, obviously very curious.

“My moms have a cottage in the middle of a bunch of land in Delaware. It’s like, on the beach. But it’s pretty secluded so we should have a lot of time if people start coming for us. The trip is usually only like two and a half, three hours but without the car….”

“It’ll be like a week, at least.” Christine stated. Jeremy looked at her, confused. It wouldn’t take  _ that _ long, surely…? “I mean, a three hour drive as a walk would be long, but we also have to take into account breaks. Plus we have two injured people, now. Even if Jeremy gets to be mostly fine with his hands, Rich is still pretty much incapacitated. And we are  _ not _ leaving anyone behind.”

Jeremy felt Michael shift uncomfortably underneath him, and he wished he could do something to comfort him without revealing their conversation from earlier. He knew why Michael felt the way that he did, but he seemed to have decided to take the loss for the good of others. Michael was a good person, through and through, even when he didn’t want to be. Jeremy appreciated that about him. Jeremy decided to speak up to spare Michael the awkwardness. “I have one of those portable shopping carts, if you wanna put some pillows and shit in there. We can wheel him around in that until he’s feeling up to walking.”

“You guyth don’t have to do that for me, really. You thould jutht leave me here. I detherve it, after what I did.” Rich said with a frown. “Theriouthly.”

“No way.” Christine crossed her arms. “No one is getting left anywhere, not if I have anything to say about it. You’re coming to the gated playground, no ifs, ands, or buts!”

“Okay, jethuth chritht, girl.” Rich laughed, then winced. “Can you hurry thith up, Chlo?”

“Shut the fuck up or I’m going to whack you, you motor mouth burn victim.” Chloe intensified her magic, causing Rich to cringe. From what Jeremy understood about healing magic, there was a certain pace it had to be done at to avoid intense discomfort from the person being healed. He’d seen the concept touched upon in some books he’d read. It was like, if the person healing did it too fast, the person being healed would be able to to feel themselves being healed too much. The sensation of your body being melded back together was not a pleasant one, Jeremy couldn’t even imagine.

“Everyone needs to grab a backpack. We can follow the train tracks towards Chloe’s neighborhood, then get to the playground to regroup. Thankfully the tracks are right down the road. I saw a hole in the fence. Maybe, if no one is around, we can go into other people’s houses, too, and grab some food and stuff.” Brooke instructed.

Rich snorted. “Not even twenty four hourth into the Apocolypthe and you are  _ ready _ to thart looting. I can get behind that.”

“Shut up.”

Chloe thought for a second. “We can probably recruit Jake from there, then. God knows he’s still home. His parents aren’t even in the country, and it’s only two in the afternoon. He might still be asleep, have no idea what’s going on.”

“Jake…. I should text Jenna, then. Tell her to meet us there. I don’t know if she’s home, but if she is she’d be better off with us then alone.” Brooke added.

Michael tensed up even more. Jeremy could tell what that meant.  _ More people? _ God, he felt awful for him. 

“Okay then! Idea set in stone!” Christine chirped.

Oof.

\--

It didn’t take them as long as they had expected to get to the playground. Chloe pushed Rich in the cart, her being stronger than she looked and wanting to keep pumping him full of curative magic. He didn’t complain, sitting quietly in the cart, occasionally making a face but not voicing any sort of unpleasantness. With this solved, they kept a steady clip all the way to the playground, the only thing holding up the pace being the wheels of the cart struggling with the train tracks and grass. Everyone had backpacks on, carrying essentials. Michael had a dark grey one, his own that he was able to salvage from his car. His photo of him and his moms was untouched by the flames, thank god, and safely tucked away. Jeremy’s was his blue one from school, with little orange highlights. Rich had made sure to tell him how ugly it was, but took it back after a threatening look from Brooke. 

When they got to the playground, Jenna was already there, waiting for them. She was sitting on the swings, kicking her feet gently but not actually swinging. Brooke walked up and sat in the other swing, starting to chat with her. Christine climbed up onto the tube equipment, and Jeremy sat inside it. Michael climbed up with Christine, and Chloe left Rich next to the swing set. She walked off, most likely to go find Jake. Jeremy sighed.

“This is a lot.” Jenna said, addressing Christine and Michael. She walked up to them, Brooke in tow, and sat down on the ground in front of them. Brooke followed suit, and threw up some devil horns. Jenna laughed and did the same. Jeremy saw a flash and peeked out. Christine had taken a picture of the two on her phone. Jeremy wanted to say something about it being a waste of battery, but it seemed to lighten the mood enough that he decided that it was fine. He wasn’t going to be a buzzkill, not right now. Things were weird enough as it was. 

Jeremy just lied back again, thinking. What was going to happen now?

Who knew.


End file.
